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SAFETY FIRST: Crime's no big deal in Scillies
The land that crime forgot
We find the safest place in Britain
FANCY living in an almost crime-free paradise - where the only police station opens at 9am each day and closes an hour later? Well, it's no Scilly dream.
Because the picturesque Isles of Scilly, just 28 miles off the south-west tip of Britain, have proved the nation's safest spot.
Statistics uncovered by the News of the World show there were just TWELVE offences of criminal damage, SIX burglaries, NO sex attacks and NO vehicle crime on the islands last year.
For the population of 2,135 it sounds like a bygone scene from police drama Heartbeat. A team of three cops - a sergeant and his two constables - work from the white police station, complete with blue lantern over the door.
They live with their families above the "shop", as they call it, on the largest isle St Mary's - the only one with an established road network. The bobbies cover all five main inhabited islands, so they go island hopping on boats from the nearby marina.
Priorities for tackling crime in this designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty are currently parking obstructions and late night noise.
But the cops also find time to front a show, every Wednesday between 3pm and 4pm, on Radio Scilly.
It's a far cry from other parts of the country, where our investigation shows you can be HUNDREDS of times more likely to suffer from crime.
Our figures come from a massive police database, covering every force in England and Wales. But they add up to this message: Where you live affects your chance of becoming a victim.
Slough, in Berkshire, is the worst place for CAR CRIME, with 30 offences for every 1,000 folk who live there.
That's sixteen times worse than in coastal county Ceredigion, West Wales, where there were just 1.8 crimes per 1,000. And immeasurably worse than the Nil scored by the Scillies.
Families face a similar postcode lottery on chances of being BURGLED. We found the hotspot was Burnley, Lancs, with 2,154 offences - or 24.6 per 1,000. Second worst was Manchester with 23.7 and third Nottingham with 22.3. Yet Ceredigion saw just 221 burglaries, a rate per 1,000 population of 2.8, the same as the Scillies.
For VANDALISM, recorded as criminal damage, the highest rate came in Corby, Northants, at 33.6 per 1,000. It's SIX times worse than Scilly, which recorded just a 5.7 rating.
When it came to SEX ATTACKS the blackspot is Westminster, where the rate stands at 2.3 per 1,000 people.
Once again the Scillies emerged scoreless and best but Lancashire's Ribble Valley ran it a close second with only 0.1 attacks per 1,000.
To see how your area rates in our Risk List, check the tables above.
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This article has 6 comments
Having holidayed on scilly i can well believe this story,we could leave our bike unattended for hours and people leave honesty boxes outside farm shops and flower stalls, It realy was like a bygone age. Having returned to Plymouth my bike was stolen outside my door having left it unattended for 2 mins!
By Jimbo.. Posted February 12 2010 at 6:48 PM.
Hello everyone,
It is so good to read this article as I am one of the officers charged with policing the Isles of Scilly. Like everywhere we have our issues but it is a wonderful place to live and work and this is "The Community" that our government aspires to recreate throughout the country. People care about each other here and pull together to sort local problems out. We the police work on community projects to divert people from creating problems. Come and see to say hello if you visit the islands. You could also have a look at what we do by following the links via a search for "Scilly Police Blog" on the internet or send us an email using the links on our web page.
Regards from the Isles of Scilly neighbourhood policing team.
By THE POLICE SERGEANT.. Posted February 1 2010 at 1:14 PM.
I just don't get why the UK doesn't make prison more of a deterrant for offenders? Why isn't there a movement to go back to victorian era prisons where there were no luxuries? Surely if prisons only provided the basic necessities to comply with human rights laws more people would be less likely to treat prison lightly!
By Anna.. Posted February 1 2010 at 5:18 AM.
The average age of the people who live in Scilly is about 150 years old, most of them have displaced locals that lived crime free with a police force of one or two constables. The Islands are "ruled" by the Duchy of Cornwall and The Tresco Time Share Estates.
By Bryan.. Posted January 31 2010 at 8:25 PM.
I would so live there if wasn't that such a small island and at risk being wiped out by the ocean!! Yes I know been watching too many natural disaster movies!!
I hope they make it difficult for someone to move there though. As in police record checks. You don't want some s**mbag moving there and ruining it all.
By Giordani.. Posted January 31 2010 at 10:19 AM.
Of course there is going to be no vehicle crime on the Isle of Scilly - apart from the odd tractor vehicles are banned!
By Matt.. Posted January 31 2010 at 12:58 AM.